BHP Billiton Shopping in Brazil

Australian natural resource megafirm BHP Billiton is considering a three billion dollar U.S. bid for Brazilian miner Ferrous Resources do Brasil LTDA.BHP already has an extensive iron ore portfolio.Mid-tier miner stocks were doing well Monday morning in Sydney in response to this merger and acquisition prospect.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.11% early Monday,bolstered by hopeful news out of Europe as the G20 finance ministers promised to have a plan for the Euro debt crisis finalised in a week.
The New Zealand services sector grew more slowly than expected in September.
The dollar/yen was flat on Monday morning,while the euro/dollar fell.
At the Canton Fair in China,the world's largest trade expo,exporters pleaded for the U.S. to stop demanding that the Chinese currency,the yuan,appreciate further.It is at the breaking point for exporters now,one vendor remarked.Any further appreciation would mean no more cheap goods for U.S. retailers and a lot less sales for Chinese suppliers.Everyone would be hurt.
South Korean golfer Na Yeon Choi,soon to turn 24,won the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.Taiwan's Yani Tseng,22,the world number one in the Rolex rankings,finished second.It was Choi's fifth career victory on the LPGA Tour,and the 100th win by a woman of Korean descent on the Tour,Choi pointed out.
It was 63F in Sydney on Monday under partly cloudy skies.The wind was S at 16 mph,and the humdity was 48%.
BHP Billiton Ltd.(BHP)

Early Edition:Merkel Pleased With Summit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the weekend's G20 summit in Toronto,Canada was ahead of her expectations because of the detail involved.The world leaders agreed to cut their deficits in half by 2013.By 2016,the debt,or accumulated deficits,will start to come down.Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that,as our stimulus programs expire,we will focus on getting our fiscal houses in order.
The G20 leaders of leading economic nations also agreed to raise capital requirements for banks.The specificity of the goals was indeed unusual for such a gathering,which typically would have a statement of general principles released as a communique.This highlights the fragility of the global economy,which cannot accept anything less than exactitude at this point.
Ms.Merkel was in a jovial mood,given this adoption of German policy by the G20,not to mention Germany's decisive victory over England in the World Cup.The leaders followed the World Cup on their Blackberries and even watched some of it together on a big screen TV.Chancellor Merkel spoke animatedly with President Barack Obama.Clearly they have become friends during this difficult period of history.It is perhaps somewhat reminiscent of the late President Ronald Reagan and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain.

The Final Demand Question

Mohamed El-Erian,co-CEO and co-Chief Investment Officer of PIMCO,says what we have in the market right now is a sugar high.It is caused by 1.the impact of the inventory cycle,but will we get a hand-off to final demand by the consumer? and 2.a tremendous amount of liquidity missed the rally and is coming in now.When we get personal consumption and retail sales numbers-these are critical numbers.
Unfortunately,Mr.El-Erian noted,there is a lack of excitement about the upcoming G20 summit in Pittsburgh,which is concerning.I hope we're gonna jump-start this whole summit process.We at PIMCO have positioned ourselves more cautiously in higher quality assets around the world.Asset prices reflect a lot about this third hand-off to final demand,which the data don't reflect yet.Up till 2019,the debt-to-GDP ratio is gonna continue to go up.The dollar is gonna weaken.It's part of the global rebalancing.The question is whether it will do this in a disorderly fashion.Without intervention or coordination,the risk of this is high,Mohamed El-Erian cautioned.

What the World Wants

You now have the most pro-American European leadership in over a century,Prime Minister Brown observed.We should seize this moment.Never before have I seen a world that wants to come together so much.How much safer everybody's savings would be if the whole world came together to outlaw shadow banking systems,and to outlaw offshore tax havens.Let us agree at our G20 summit in April rules that apply to every bank,everywhere,all the time.I am confident that this president,this Congress and the peoples of the world can come together in Copenhagen in November and reach agreement to combat global climate change,Gordon Brown told the joint meeting of Congress.

Shop Talk

A special greeting to Massachusetts,the state that is as difficult to spell as Mississippi.The weekend focus,however, will be on Washington,D.C.,where the G20 leaders will be meeting to discuss the financial crisis.The G20 are the biggest of the developed and developing economies.They will look at what new standards may be applied to the global markets,in order to prevent another crisis of this magnitude,and who should apply them.The International Monetary Fund has been mentioned as a prospective regulator.It was intended to take on such a task,it has been said.France and the U.K. intend to play a prominent role in the deliberations this weekend.They are pushing hard to get the problems addressed in short order.The conference is taking place at the National Building Museum,and is expected to be the first of a series.The world has never been so interconnected,yet the structures to manage the interconnections have not been updated for many decades,if they indeed exist at all.